DETROIT – Three games in four nights caught up to the Detroit Red Wings.

And it spoiled their home opener at Joe Louis Arena, Tuesday night.

Dallas got two goals from Michael Ryder and a 39-save performance from Kari Lehtonen as the Stars skated past the Wings, 2-1.

“I think we looked like we were out of gas,” Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “I thought Lash (Brian Lashoff) and Smitty (Brendan Smith) were good, they’ve been playing in the American league. The rest of us, I thought it looked like we were dragging something.”

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The loss leaves Detroit with just one win after three games in the 48-game schedule.

“It’s early, but we know it’s a shortened season,” said Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg. “We have to win games. We can’t win one and lose two. If we keep doing that it won’t be fun here. I think parts of the game we did good stuff, but we just have to keep working hard and we’ll get rewarded for it.”

Rookie Damien Brunner spoiled Lehtonen’s bid for a shutout with 3.4 seconds left in the third period.

“We can’t get frustrated,” said Wings goalie Jimmy Howard, who held his team in it with 30 saves. “We have to go out there and keep working our hardest. It’s not because we’re not trying. We’re putting the puck on net, doing some good things, but the puck just isn’t going into the net right now for us. Six posts in the last two games, we’re not getting much puck luck right now.”

Detroit had won its last three home openers.

“We couldn’t really get the puck behind the goalie,” Zetterberg said. “We hit a few posts, but I think we have to keep putting pucks on net. We didn’t have much net-front presence, a lot of second pucks lying there and we couldn’t get there.”

The Wings, who beat Columbus in a shootout Monday, showed little energy playing in front of the home crowd.

“It was a fairly easy the first 50 minutes, then Detroit came a little harder,” Lehtonen said. “It was nice to have two-goal lead at the end. It made it a little calm for the whole team.

“This place is not easy to come to and get wins,” Lehtonen continued. “I think the thing with (Nicklas) Lidstrom was he calmed everybody’s game. He was very good on the power play. But I think they are still a very good team.”

Lidstrom retired in the offseason.

The Wings’ 23-game home winning streak from last season seems like a distant memory right now.

“They trap pretty good in the neutral zone,” said Brunner, who got credit for his first NHL goal. “We’ve got to get harder to the net, get net-front presence, get those shots through. They have a big goalie, he made some good saves but we got to be better in front of the net.”

Trailing 1-0 entering the third period, Brunner looked as if he was going to tie the game a minute in, picking up a rebound off a shot from Zetterberg, but Lehtonen pushed off to his left and snared his shot with his glove save.

A few minutes later, the Wings couldn’t get puck out of their own zone and it led to the Stars’ second goal as Ryder buried hit shot in the open net after a nice feed from Ray Whitney.

Howard did his best keeping the Wings in the game, making a spectacular glove save on backhand shot down low by Reilly Smith, Brendan’s younger brother.

Ryder opened the scoring less than six minutes into the game snapping a wrist shot through a screen and sneaking it in the upper corner over Howard’s right shoulder.

The Wings’ power play continued to struggle, going 0-for-4 with the man advantage. The have yet to score on the power play this season on 15 tries.

Dallas finished with as many shots shorthanded, four, as Detroit had on the power play.

“It’s not good,” Zetterberg said. “We just have to go back to the drawing board and work on it. Nothing more we can do. We’re gripping our sticks a little too hard rather than just relaxing. We’re forcing some plays. It’s one and done all the time.”

The penalty kill did improve, killing off both of the Stars’ chances. The Wings had given up six power play goals in 12 tries through the first two games.

Jordin Tootoo delivered the hit of game just before the midway point of first period, lowering his shoulder to level Philip Larsen just after he cleared the puck out of the Stars’ zone.

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